The Demon’s Bride

Cynthia glanced at the servants and waved off her hand, telling them to dispatch from whatever they are doing. She stepped forward with a sigh that escaped from her mouth. "There's no need for that anymore. We have found the girl." 

Hearing the news, Austin breath out in relief. "Thank the Gods." He slid the coat again over his shoulder and asked. "Where was she? Where did you find her?" 

Cynthia told the maid beside her to find Maroon and fetch him back and to stop the ongoing order. "The master's room. She was sleeping beside the lord." 

"Master room? Do you mean the Lord's room?" Austin's face was smeared in shock, repeating the words that Cynthia said as though he forgot who was living in the Master room. The black circle in his yellowish eyes nearly turned to an oval in a startle. 

"There isn't any other master room that the Lord's, Austin." 

Austin was still taken aback by the discovery. "I know. I was just... Surprised, greatly surprised. I- no, I should have known that Elise couldn't go out without the Lord's noticing her. But the bedroom? The Lord has brought countless women there, but I have never seen one that came out aliv-" 

"Shut it." Cynthia warned, stepping on Austin's feet so he would stop spouting nonsense. "You should stop talking with your foul words, especially when you are in front of the girl. She's a pure child and no one wants you to share her your rotten behavior." 

Austin looked down at his poor feet that were stepped by Cynthia with the face of a grimace. Cynthia wasn't a woman of strength, but nonetheless, she was far stronger than a human and had never been the person to hold back her strength.

Bending his knees on to his waist, his eyes spotted Cynthia exiting the servants' quester and shouted. "Hey! Cy, where are you going?" 

"Where else, entertaining the adorable girl of course." Cynthia smirked leaving the man jumping on one foot to chase her. 

By the time Elise opened her two eyes, she rubbed her eyes in a drowsy state to see that the person beside her had left. She glanced around, looking at the large window on her left that had been opened so the morning light could go through. Mila entered the room with a lot of hesitation. She was still able to calm herself a little when she entered Elise's room as it was beside the Lord's but the Lord's room was utterly different. 

The presence and pressuring aura diffuse in the whole room, as though a thick fragrance of death hovering through the room. Calming herself with a chant of prayers, she entered the room and saw the girl in the middle of gazing the window beside her with a slightly ruffled appearance. Mila's eyes turned softer from the sight. She looked around to see whether the girl was touched by the Lord, but deep down she knew that although the Lord wasn't a good man, he would never touch a little child. 

"Have you woken up, dear?" She walked beside her to see the girl nodding. 

"Good morning, Mila." Her soft voice and adorable appearance brought a gentle smile back at Mila, easing the nervousness to the room. "Good morning, Elise. Let's get you a bath and then breakfast." 

Mila's hand connected with the girl to the bathroom on her own room that was right beside the girl. As soon as the finished the bath, Mila braided her hair to the side, giving some laces ribbon to adore her hair. Elise who had never seen someone braiding her hair looked at Mila's talented hands in wonder and amazement. 

"Thank you." Elise murmured while fiddling with her small fingers. She wasn't used in talking to someone as her previous family had always been shouting at her to shut up whenever she tried to talk. Even making a whisper didn't sit well with them.

Mila also had noticed how less the girl talked, but judging from the first appearance when the Lord brought her back to the mansion and some old scars on her body, her previous life must haven't been a good one. A child abused by the people she lived in, just by the thought of such an adorable little girl being subjected to violence, Mila knitted her brows. Mythical beings had never been the best kin in the world, but the human was no less than them. 

The little girl and the black-uniformed maid walked down to the dining room where Ian had sat on while reading some newspaper from the town. Maroon with his red dull hair stood beside the Lord, taking the neatly folded newspaper that Ian passed to him as soon as he saw his little puppy. 

"The dress is still a little big for you." He commented while seizing the hem of the dress that fell to her ankle. The dress and nightgown that Elise had been wearing since last night wasn't because Ian had considered the thought of buying a dress for his future slave as he was never the type to read too far to the future. And at that time, he could never guess that he would be buying a slave from the auction hall. 

The dresses were for the guests who would be staying at his house, as he was the Lord there had been many occasions when people from his business, magistrate, aristocrats, or the church stayed there. Maroon prepared the dress for a ten to an eleven-year-old girl as most of the nobles would only bring their child outside when they reached the age. 

Ian had guessed that the dress would be a little bigger to Elise, but he didn't expect her body was that small and short that she could barely walk without stepping over the dress. The ribbon in the middle of her waist was also the proof that Mila had been working hard to lift the hem of the dress a little above her little feet. 

"Well, it still looks better than that white ragged fabric before." Ian picked the knife on his right and spread the strawberry jam across the crispy toasted bread to pass it over the girl who had been waiting for him with her large expectant eyes. 

"You worked me, a Lord more than all the other women around me before." He passed the bread to the clueless girl who couldn't understand his words. But as long as she could eat the bread to fill her rumbling stomach, Elise wouldn't care much about what the other party is saying at least that what she thought to herself. 

Cynthia felt her head grew swollen from Ian and Austin's crude words. She couldn't expect them anything, she thought to herself and swore to protect the little girl from adopting their vulgar behavior. "I think she needs a governess, my lord." Cynthia began from the side, sitting straight with her hands on the back. 

"That. I agree, however she's still a child and studying is too burdensome as she had no such obligation now other than playing. Also, she's too stiff for her age and talks less. As her chaperone, your work is to make sure she could express herself a little more."

Cynthia finally understood what the Lord said by a chaperone, he seemed to be thinking of the girl well, which was good to her as she labeled him as a person who only wanted to do pick the girl as an amusement without caring about the girl's condition. "I understand." she bowed and nudged her elbow to Austin who had been dozing off beneath the warm sunlight. 

Austin woke up in surprise, shaking his head before stretching his sore back like how a cat was. "The sunlight is warm. It's making me a little sleepy..."

"I know idiotic cat!" Cynthia stepped on his feet as she knew he couldn't wake up with only a light nudged. 

"Aww!" Austin whined to feel Ian's eyes on him from ahead. 

"I should have brought a dog to the mansion instead of a cat. I think they could do a better job at picking scents too." Ian complained between his breath and passed the glass of milk to Elise before standing up from his seat to exit the dining room. 

"Then you should have brought a dog in the first place." Austin grumbled in a whisper. Ian heard him talking from afar but decide to pay him a kindness today to ignore his lament. 

Elise spent her days mostly by playing with Cynthia and Austin. Although at first, she was rather awkward with them. She had come to a liking with the two friendly people and began to talk a little more than before. 

Sometimes, the two chaperones would bet among each other for their work at the house of the day by the number of how much they were able to talk with Elise. Elise didn't notice their game and spoke as she like, making a fair factor to judge the winning and losing between the two. 

A week has passed after Elise arrival at the White's mansion and on her stay in the house, she began to learn many things about the Mansion and her master. One of it was that unlike her assumption of Master Ian would be spending his time in the wide mansion, he rarely stayed at the house for more than four hours. He was a hard-working person in Elise's eyes as he had never wasted a single second and kept running along the time here and there. 

But she often wondered what Ian work as. He had a big house and before he bought her with four thousand gold coins. The magnanimous amounts of coins that she could not even imagine to take a peek at.